Friday, July 11, 2008

Death of a curmudgeon

Comments (10)

Perhaps he shouldn't have put his cone in the middle of a public street, perhaps he had every right in the world.

In any case, when I'm old and frail, I'll have the proper tools at my side, should some savage goon decide to beat me to death over something that...well...the vast majority of civilized human beings wouldn't beat someone to death over.

Perhaps it will still be legal for the elderly to fend off their predators at that point, but I kinda doubt it. This will probably have little effect on many of their choices as to tool possession, ultimately.

I agree that it's worse for the participants. The weekend bike rage incident and the press reports on it, on the other hand, have more potential for repercussions. A little dose of patience and kindness might be helpful all around.

This is really sad and should never of happened... But Cabbie-- is 60 years old really considered elderly and frail? He had enough balls to spray random motorists in the street...of course that's going piss people off in a city like Seattle.

"Perhaps it will still be legal for the elderly to fend off their predators at that point..."

Please. Who turned the hose on whom? He was blocking a public street, and when a woman motorist tried to move the cone so that she could use the public thoroughfare, the perp turned the hose on her. He was the aggressor. What, he couldn't just walk over and replace the cone, and then continue with his watering?

A sad outcome, but one the perp could have prevented by not using aggression against others. When the answer to the problem is to use force to get what you want, why should you be surprised when others do likewise?

The science says that conflict is more likely to escalate when it is unclear who outranks who. Spray your boss or your employee with water, for example, and everybody is more likely to allow a third party to settle the dispute. But when the issue of social rank is ambiguous—random strangers, say—there is a much greater likelihood that the dispute will ratchet up and up and up and up until somebody achieves dominance.

Conventional wisdom has it that trivial matters shouldn't result in murder, but it is abundantly clear that these trivialities are precisely the arenas in which out symbolic sense of worth is contested. Truly, you will never find a sober forensic pathologist willing to start bickering over a parking space. They know it's too dangerous.

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 155
At this date last year: 241
Total run in 2015: 271
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